Minister: Germany to change laws to allow carbon capture technology

Germany will change its laws to allow carbon capture and storage technology in certain carbon-intensive industries. Economy Minister Robert Habeck said this today. Europe’s largest economy is seeking to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, meaning that no more greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere than can technically be stored or absorbed by nature.

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, removes carbon dioxide produced by industrial processes from the atmosphere or captures it at the point of emission and stores it underground.

CCS was restricted in Germany by a law passed in 2012 that gave the federal states the right to veto its use, Reuters reported. But as Germany, Europe’s largest CO2 emitter, is unlikely to meet its target of producing zero emissions by 2045, Berlin has reconsidered its position on CCS.

Habeck said that under the changes to the law, CO2 transport and storage beneath the seabed would be permitted. “The technology is safe,” the minister said at a press conference where he presented the government’s strategy for managing carbon emissions.